Tantalus Creek.
Tributary of Frémont River.Photograph byJ. K. Hillers.
(larger image, 600KB)
D. Preliminary map of a portion of the northern part of the unknown country indicated by the blank space on Map A at page 95, showing the course of part of Glen Canyon, the mouth of the Frémont (Dirty Devil) River, the Henry (Unknown) Mountains, and the trail of the first known party of white men to cross this area. The Escalante River, which was mistaken for the Dirty Devil, enters the Colorado just above the first letter "o" of Colorado at the bottom of the map. The Dirty Devil enters from the north at the upper right-hand side.
When morning came we engineered a way for the animals down to the shelf where the other pocket was, twenty or thirty feet below, by pulling rocks away in places and piling them up in others. The shelf was perhaps fifty or sixty feet wide, with a sheer plunge of one thousand feet at the outer end into the first canyon we had followed. The animals could not get to the water, but we dipped it out for them in the camp kettles. The way up from the shelf was so very steep that at one point two of us had to put our shoulders to the haunches of some of the horses to "boost" them, while other men pulled on a strong halter from above, and in this way we soon had them all watered and ready for pack and saddle. Keeping along the divide we had comparatively easy going, with the Unknown Mountains ever looming nearer, till their blue mystery vanished and we could discern ordinary rocks and trees composing their slopes. About noon we arrived at the edge of an intervening valley, with the wind blowing so fierce a gale that we could barely see. Crossing this depression we reached a small creek at the foot of the second mountain from the north (now Mt. Pennell), and climbed its slope seventeen hundred feet to a beautiful spring, where we camped, with plenty of fine grass for the famished horses. We had at last traversed the unknown to the unknown, and felt well satisfied with our success. If it had ever been done before by white men there was no knowledge of it.
The temperature was so low that water froze in the camp kettles, and next morning, June 18th, the thermometer stood at 28° F., with the water of the little brook running from thespring at 37° F. After breakfast Prof., Jack, and Dodds climbed the mountain on which we were camped, running their aneroid out, while with Johnson I went down the slope north, crossed the pass, and climbed the first mountain (now Mt. Ellen, after Mrs. Thompson). A severe snow-storm set in, and when we had finally attained a point where our aneroid indicated 11,200 feet above sea-level, we were obliged to turn back because of the lateness of the hour and having no coats, no food, or water. When we reached camp on the other mountain night had come. Andy had been trying to cook some beans, but the high altitude prevented the water from getting hot enough and the operation was incomplete.[30]I foolishly ate some of the beans, being very hungry, with the result that I was sick for the first time on the expedition, suffering a horrible stomach-ache. Though not disabled I was extremely uncomfortable. In the morning we started to go around north through the pass to the east side of the mountain, and I ran in the trail as usual, mounting and dismounting many times, till I was extremely glad after eight miles when we came to the head of a little creek and stopped to enable Prof. to climb the third peak (Mt. Hillers) for observations. While he was gone I was content to lie still in the shade of a bush, and finally lost my pain in sleep. Prof. got back so late that we camped where we were, much to my satisfaction. The view from our camp was extensive and magnificent, the whole Dirty Devil region lying open, like a book, below us.
We were striking for the creek up which Prof. and Cap. had come the year before from the river, for we knew that from its mouth we could easily get to where ourCañonitawas cached. The next day, June 20th, we continued down Trachyte Creek, as Prof. called it, till four o'clock, passing many old camps and grazing grounds, when we halted for Prof. to climb to a height. The outlook there showed him that this was not the stream whose canyon below we wanted to descend to the river, so the following morning he took Dodds and reconnoitred, the latter after a while returning with orders for us to come on eastward to another canyon. We left Trachyte Creek and reached Prof. at two o'clock. He had prospected a trail, or rather a way, to descend into the canyon over the smooth bare sandstone across which we wound back and forth for a mile, constantly going down into the strange, weird depths till at last we reached the creek bed, where a short distance below we went into camp in a beautiful green cottonwood grove, with enormous pockets of good water close by. By seven o'clock in the morning of the 22d we were going on down the deep, narrow canyon, and arrived at the Colorado at half-past ten. The river was at least fifteen feet higher than last year, and rushed by with a majestic power that was impressive. Our first unusual incident was when Prof.'s horse, in trying to drink from a soft bank, dropped down into the swift current and gave us half an hour's difficult work to get him out. When we had eaten dinner we all went up to the mouth of the Dirty Devil, where we had stored theCañonita, and rejoiced to find her lying just as we left her, except that the water had risen to that level and washed away one of the oars. We caulked the boat temporarily, launched her once more on the sweeping tide, and in two minutes were at our camp, where we hauled her out for the repairs necessary to make her sound for the run to the Paria.
Sunday was the next day, June 23d, and while the others rested I plotted in the trail by which we had crossed to this place so that Prof. could take it out with him, as he decided that Jack, Johnson, Fennemore, and I were to take the boat down, while he, Andy, and Dodds would go back overland to meet Jones and George Adair at the foot of Potato Valley. At five o'clock they left us, going up the same canyon we had come down and which we called Lost Creek Canyon, now Crescent Creek. The next day we recaulked and painted the boat, and I put the nameCañonitain red letters on the stern and a red star on each side of the bow. By Wednesday the 26th she was all ready and we put her in the water and ran down four miles to the large Shinumo house. Jack rowed the stern oars, Johnson the bow, I steered, while Fennemore sat onthe middle deck. The high water completely obliterated the aggravating shoals which had bothered us the year before, and we had no work at all except to steer or to land, the current carrying us along at a good pace. We stopped occasionally for pictures and notes and got about everything that Jack and Fennemore wanted in the line of photographs. The Fourth of July we celebrated by firing fourteen rounds, and I made a lemon cake and a peach-pie for dinner. On Sunday the 8th we passed the mouth of the stream that had been mistaken for the Dirty Devil, and which Prof. had named Escalante River. It was narrow and shallow and would not be taken at its mouth for so important a tributary. The next day we passed the San Juan which was running a very large stream, and camped at the Music Temple, where I cut Jack's name and mine under those of the Howlands and Dunn. The rapid below was dashing but easy and we ran it without stopping to examine. On Friday the 12th we came to El Vado and dug up a cache we had made there the year before. Our rations for some time were nothing but bread and coffee, and we were glad to see the Echo Peaks and then run in at the mouth of the Paria on Saturday, July 13th, with the expectation of finding men and supplies. TheDeanwas lying high and dry on the bank and we wondered who had taken her from her hiding-place. Firing our signal shots and receiving no answer, Jack and I went up the Paria, crossing it on a log, and saw a cabin and a farm on the west side. This we knew must be Lee's. He was ploughing in a field, and when he first sighted us he seemed a little startled, doubtless thinking we might be officers to arrest him. One of his wives, Rachel, went into the cabin not far off and peered out at us. She was a fine shot as I afterwards learned. Lee received us pleasantly and invited us to take our meals at his house till our party came. As we had nothing but bread and coffee and not much of these we accepted. The fresh vegetables out of the garden, which his other wife, Mrs. LeeXVIII., served nicely cooked, seemed the most delicious food that could be prepared. Mrs. LeeXVIII.was a stout, comely young woman of about twenty-five, with two small children, and seemed to be entirely happy in the situation. The other wife, whosenumber I did not learn, left before dark for a house they had at Jacob's Pool and I never saw her again.
photo, lake
Example of Lakes on the Aquarius Plateau.
Photograph byJ. K. Hillers.
Lee had worked hard since his arrival early in the year and now had his farm in fairly good order with crops growing, well irrigated by the water he took out of the Paria. He called the place Lonely Dell, and it was not a misnomer. Johnson made arrangements to go to Kanab the next day, as he concluded that his health would not permit him to go through the Grand Canyon with us, so this was our last night with him. Lee gave me his own version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre claiming that he really had nothing to do with it and had tried to stop it, and when he could not do so he went to his house and cried. The Pai Utes ever after called him Naguts or Crybaby.[31]
In the morning, Sunday, July 14th, Johnson departed with Lee and we expected someone to arrive to bring us news of the Major and Prof., but the sun went down once more without any message. We felt sure that Prof. got out of the Dirty Devil country without accident, but we wanted some definite information of it and we also desired to know when we would resume the canyon voyage. On Monday having nothing else to do we took some hoes and worked in Lee's garden till near noon, when we heard yells which proved to come from Andy and Clem with a waggon needing some help over bad places. We soon had the waggon in a good spot under some willows and there speedily ransacked it for mail, spending the rest of the day reading letters and newspapers. Andy told us that Prof. had reached Kanab with no trouble of any kind. Mrs. LeeXVIII., or Sister Emma, as she would in Utah properly be called, invited us to dinner and supper, and the next day we worked in the garden again, repaired the irrigating ditch, and helped about the place in a general way, glad enough to have some occupation even though the sun was burning hot and the thermometer stood at 110° in the shade. Almost every day we did some work in the garden and we also repaired the irrigating dam.
Our camp was across the Paria down by the Colorado, andwhen Brother Lee came back the following Sunday he called to give us a lengthy dissertation on the faith of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), while Andy, always up to mischief, in his quiet way, delighted to get behind him and cock a rifle. At the sound of the ominous click Lee would wheel like a flash to see what was up. We had no intention of capturing him, of course, but it amused Andy to act in a way that kept Lee on thequi vive. We got theNellout of her shed and found her in very bad condition, while theDeanwas about as we had left her. Andy and Jack went to work on theDeanand in a few days had her in excellent trim. On July 24th, which is the day the Mormons celebrate for the settlement of Salt Lake Valley, Lee invited us to dinner and supper, which gave us a very pleasant time. So far as our intercourse with Lee was concerned we had no cause for complaint. He was genial, courteous, and generous.
A copy of DeForrest'sOverlandwas in camp and I whiled away some hours reading it, but time began to hang heavily upon us and we daily longed for the appearance of the rest of the party so that we might push out on the great red flood that moved irresistibly down into the maw of Marble Canyon, and end the uncertainty that lay before us. August the first came and still no message. Fennemore now felt so sick that Jack took him to Lee's with rations in order that he might have vegetables with his meals with the hope that he would recover, but he grew worse, and on August 4th he decided that he would return to his home in Salt Lake. We concluded that one of us must go to Kanab to inform Prof. of the state of affairs, and Clem in his big-hearted way offered to do this, but we knew that his sense of locality was defective and that he might get lost. Consequently we played on him an innocent trick which I may now tell as he long ago went "across the range." I planned with Andy that we three were to draw cuts for the honour of the ride and that Andy was to let me draw the fatal one. Clem was greatly disappointed. Jack went on a chase after Nig and ran him down about sunset, for Nig was the most diplomatic mule that ever lived. Having no saddle I borrowed one from Lee who let me have it dubiously as hefeared we might be laying some trap. I gave him my word that while I had his saddle no man of ours would molest him, and furthermore that they would befriend him. I rode away while he remarked that in the rocks he could defy an army, with regret still in his eyes, though he accepted my pledge. I got out a few miles before dark and slept by the roadside, with the distant murmur of rapids speaking to me of the turmoil we were soon to pass through. By noon of the next day I was at Jacob's Pool, by half-past three at House Rock Spring, and at night in Summit Valley where I camped. The day was so hot that I could hardly bear my hand on my rifle barrel as it lay across my saddle. My lunch of jerked beef and bread I ate as I rode along thus losing no time.
The trail across the Kaibab was not often travelled, and it was dim and hard to follow, a faint horse track showing here and there, so I lost it several times but quickly picked it up again, and finally came out of the forest where I could see all the now familiar country to the west and north. About two o'clock I arrived at Kanab and rode to Jacob's house where Sister Louisa told me that the Major, Prof., Mrs. Thompson, Professor De Motte, and George Adair had left that very morning for the south end of the Kaibab on the way to the Paria, and that Jones and Lyman Hamblin the day before had started for the Paria with a waggon load of supplies drawn by a team of four broncho mules. Nig being very tired I thought I would rest till morning, when he rewarded my consideration by eluding me till ten o'clock. This gave me so late a start that it was dark and rainy when I descended the east side of the Kaibab, and I had to drag Nig down the 2000 feet in the gloom over boulders, bushes, ledges, or anything else that came, for I could see only a few feet and could not keep the trail. I reached House Rock Spring at last and camped there. In the morning I discovered Jones and Lyman down in the valley and joined them for breakfast, after which I helped them start. This was no easy matter, for the four mules they had in harness, with one exception, were as wild as mountain sheep, having only recently been broken. Jones had been badly kicked three times, his hands were burned by the ropes, and there was a lively timewhenever the excited animals were put to the waggon. The road was new, only a waggon track in reality, and the mules became more and more docile through exhaustion as the day went on. At night they were far safer to handle than in the morning.
July 9th about dark we arrived at Lonely Dell, Lee stealing suspiciously in behind where I was walking, to ask me who the men were and what they wanted. We had a joyful time, especially as Steward had sent out a large box of fine candy which we found in the mail and opened at once. Four days later the Major and his party came from the Kaibab and we had venison for supper. The Major said we would go on down the Colorado as soon as possible though the water was still very high.
line drawing, lizard
FOOTNOTES:[30]We had not yet learned to put a tight cover on the bean pot, and then by means of a big stone on the cover and a hot fire create an artificial atmosphere within it, thus raising the temperature.[31]Lee was executed for the crime five years later, 1877. Others implicated were not punished, the execution of Lee "closing the incident."
[30]We had not yet learned to put a tight cover on the bean pot, and then by means of a big stone on the cover and a hot fire create an artificial atmosphere within it, thus raising the temperature.
[30]We had not yet learned to put a tight cover on the bean pot, and then by means of a big stone on the cover and a hot fire create an artificial atmosphere within it, thus raising the temperature.
[31]Lee was executed for the crime five years later, 1877. Others implicated were not punished, the execution of Lee "closing the incident."
[31]Lee was executed for the crime five years later, 1877. Others implicated were not punished, the execution of Lee "closing the incident."
Colour sketch
The Grand Canyon
Near mouth of Shinumo CreekThe river is in flood and the water is "colorado." Sketch made in colour on the spot by F. S. Dellenbaugh. July 26, 1907.
line drawing, boat on wave
A Company of Seven.—TheNellie PowellAbandoned.—Into Marble Canyon.—Vasey's Paradise.—A Furious Descent to the Little Colorado.—A Mighty Fall in the Dismal Granite Gorge.—Caught in a Trap.—Upside Down.—A Deep Plunge and a Predicament.—At the Mouth of the Kanab.
A Company of Seven.—TheNellie PowellAbandoned.—Into Marble Canyon.—Vasey's Paradise.—A Furious Descent to the Little Colorado.—A Mighty Fall in the Dismal Granite Gorge.—Caught in a Trap.—Upside Down.—A Deep Plunge and a Predicament.—At the Mouth of the Kanab.
We now missed Steward, Cap, and Beaman more than ever, for we had been unable to get anyone to take their places. The fact was our prospective voyage through Marble and Grand canyons was considered almost a forlorn hope and nobody cared to take the risk. The plan had been to give me the steering of theCañonita, but now with three boats and only seven to man them it was plain that one must be abandoned. An examination of them all showed that theNellie Powellwas in the poorest condition and she was chosen for the sacrifice. She was put back in her shelter being afterwards used by Lee for a desultory ferry business, that developed. About ten days before our arrival, theDeanhad been discovered by a newspaper man named J. H. Beadle, and used to cross to the north side where he left her. This was how she happened to be there when we came. Beadle had denounced Lee and the Mormons in print and tried to conceal his identity by assuming the name of Hanson, a plan frustrated by his having some clothes, marked with his own name, laundered by Sister Emma. Lee was only amused by the incident. TheDeanwas to be manned by the same crew as before; Jones to steer, Jack at the after oars, I at the forward pair, and the Major in his usual place on the middle deck. TheCañonitawas to have Prof. as steersman, Andy at the stroke oars, and Clem in the bow, Clem having gotten all over his inclination to leave and being determined now to see the end of the voyage before he departed.
The same day that the Major and his party arrived, Jack and I, with Jones steering, tried theDeanby taking Mrs. Thompson, Professor DeMotte, and Lyman Hamblin up the river so that they might see what a canyon was like from a boat. Mrs. Thompson was so enthusiastic that she declared she wanted to accompany us. Prof. took her as passenger on theCañonitaabout half-past four on Wednesday, August 14th, when we had completed the sacking and packing of provisions, and with both boats ran down through a small rapid or two about a mile and a half, where we camped at the mouth of a little canyon down which the waggon-road came. Mrs. Thompson enjoyed the exhilaration of descending the swift rushing water and still thought it attractive. I went to Lee's and brought down the Major's arm-chair for our boat, and saw Fennemore who was very sick. We made our final preparations at this point, and I spent most of Thursday morning helping the Major get his papers in order so that if we did not appear again his affairs could be readily settled. This required considerable writing, which I did, for the Major wrote slowly with his left hand, the only one he had. We dined with Lee, having the first watermelon of the season for dessert. Lee was most cordial and we could not have asked better treatment than he gave us the whole time we were at Lonely Dell. In the afternoon our land outfit left for Kanab and we said a last good-bye to the men, who looked as if they never expected to see us again. Only the "Tirtaan Aigles" remained, and there were but seven of these now. The next day we put the finishing touches on the boats, and while we were doing this our late fellow voyageur Beaman, and a companion named Carleton, passed on their way to the Moki Towns where Beaman wanted to make photographs. All being ready the next day, Saturday, August 17th, we pushed out on the mighty Colorado about nine o'clock and by noon ran into Marble Canyon, nearly five miles, passing one small rapid and another of considerable size on a river about one hundred feet wide and extremely swift, with straight walls rapidly increasing from the fifty feet or so at the Paria. Marble Canyon while differing in name is but the upper continuation of the Grand Canyon, there being no line of demarkation otherthan a change in geological structure and the entrance of the canyon of the Little Colorado. The combined length of the two divisions is 283 miles and the declivity is very great. The altitude of the mouth of the Paria is 3170 feet, while the Grand Wash at the end of the Grand Canyon is 840 feet, leaving a descent of 2330 feet still before us.
At our dinner camp, which was on a talus on the left, the walls were about 500 feet and quite precipitous, but I was able to climb out on the right to get a view of the surroundings. After dinner we went on in our usual order, our boat theDeanin advance and theCañonitafollowing. The photographing now devolved entirely on Jack and Clem; Andy as usual ran the culinary branch of the expedition, Jones and Prof. meandered the river. We had not gone far after dinner before we were close upon a bad-looking rapid, a drop of about eighteen feet in a distance of 225, which we concluded to defeat by means of a portage on the right-hand bank. As we knew exactly what to do no time was wasted and we were soon below, sweeping on with a stiff current which brought us, in about ten miles from our morning start and five from the noon halt, to a far worse rapid than the last, a fall of twenty-five feet in four or five hundred, with very straight walls six hundred feet high on both sides. The Major concluded to leave the passage of it till the next day, and we went into camp at the head. This was the rapid where disaster fell on the miners, ten in number, who in the spring had stolen a lot of our things at the Paria and started down prospecting on a raft. They saved their lives but not another thing, and after a great deal of hard work they succeeded by means of driftwood ladders in climbing to the top of the walls and made their way to the settlement. This is now called Soap Creek Rapid, being at the mouth of the canyon by which the little stream of that name reaches the river,—a little stream which at times is a mighty torrent. In a small rapid following or in the final portion of this, I believe, is the place where Frank M. Brown, leader of the Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific Railway Survey, was drowned in 1889.
We began work on Sunday, August 18th, by making theportage and had no trouble of any kind, Jack and Clem making some photographs before we finally said good-bye to the place. Continuing on our way we found the river very narrow, not over seventy-five feet in many places and ranging from that to two hundred, with frequent whirlpools strong enough to swing our boats entirely around. Before dinner-time we had put five large rapids behind, and then we halted under a ledge on the left a short distance above a very ugly and difficult prospect. There was an exceedingly heavy descent and a soft sandstone being at the river margin it was worn away, giving little chance for a footing by which to make a portage. The Major and Prof. decided that we could run it safely, and after dinner we shot into it, both boats going through in fine style. Just below was another smaller one that was vanquished easily, and we went swiftly on down the swirling, booming current. Rain fell at intervals to continue our saturation, and with four more rapids, all of which we ran, one having quite a heavy fall, there was little chance for us to dry out. At one point we passed an enormous rock which had dropped from the cliffs overhead and almost blocked the whole river. Then we arrived at a huge rapid whose angry tones cried so distinctly, "No running through here," that we did not hesitate but began a let down forthwith, and when that was accomplished we camped at the foot of it for the night, having come eleven and three-eighths miles during the day. The rapid was extremely noisy and the roaring reverberated back and forth from cliff to cliff as it ascended to the top, 1800 feet, to escape into the larger air. The walls had two or three terraces and were not over three quarters of a mile apart at the summit, the cliff portions being nearly or quite perpendicular. The rocks, of all sizes, which were legion at each rapid, were frequently dovetailed into each other by the action of the current and so neatly joined in a serrated line that they were practically one.
photo, canyon
Thompson
Marble Canyon.
Photograph byJ. K. Hillers, 1872.
The rapidity with which the water went down and the walls went up as we cut into the plateau gave a vivid impression of descending into the very bowels of the earth, and this impression seemed daily to intensify. On Monday, August 19th, the same conditions prevailed, the walls being of marble mostlyvertical from the water's edge for about seven hundred feet, and then rising by four terraces to two thousand feet, all stained red by the disintegration of iron-stained rocks overhead though the marble is a grey colour. We only made four and one-quarter miles and established Camp 90 on the left, just below a big rapid and in sight of another, with a record for the whole day of four rapids run, three passed by let-downs, and one overcome by a portage. The next day we did not accomplish a much greater distance, only about nine miles, but we were highly successful in our encounters with the enemy, running no less than twelve big rapids and making a portage at another to round out the dozen on the baker's proverbial basis. The average width of the canyon at the top was about one and a quarter miles, while the breadth of the water itself plunging along the bottom was not more than 125 feet, and the total height of wall was 2500 feet. We had marble at the river margin most of the day, a greyish crystalline rock fluted multitudinously in places by the action of high water and sometimes polished like glass. While this was a grey rock the entire effect of the canyon, for the reason stated above, was red. On the right bank we made our camp on some sand at the mouth of a gulch, and immediately put on our dry clothes from the boats. Not far below on the same side was what appeared to be a vast ruined tower. Around the indentations which answered for crumbling windows bunches of mosses and ferns were draped, while from the side, about one hundred feet up from the river, clear springs broke forth to dash down amidst verdure in silvery skeins. The whole affair formed a striking and unusual picture, the only green that so far had been visible in the canyon landscape, for the walls from brink to river were absolutely barren of trees or any apparent vegetation. On the former trip the Major had named the place after a botanist friend of his, Vasey's (Vaysey) Paradise, and this was now recorded in our notes. All day long we had seen in the magnificent walls besides caverns and galleries resemblances to every form of architectural design, turrets, forts, balconies, castles, and a thousand strange and fantastic suggestions from the dark tower against which Childe Roland with his slug-hornblew defiance, to the airy structures evolved by the wonderful lamp of Aladdin.
Starting down again on Wednesday morning we ran past the Paradise and heard a little bird singing there amidst the spray and mosses, a delicate note seeming out of place amidst such gigantic desolation. Only the boom of great cannon or the tone of some enormous organ pipe would be correct with the surroundings. The walls at the water's edge were vertical for long distances up to eight hundred feet, and being now in all about three thousand feet and not a great ways apart, the outlook ahead was something almost overpowering in its deep suggestion of mysterious and untold realms to come. On the first voyage it would have been easy to persuade oneself that the river was soon to become subterranean, but the Major having solved the enigma, we could look with indifference on the threatening prospect. Yet the walls nevertheless seemed to have a determination to close together overhead as we looked down the descending waters before us, with cliff mounting on cliff and the distance from one to the other appearing so very small. Deep and sombre were the shadows at the bends, and the imagination needed no spur to picture there rapids, falls, cataracts, of giant proportions. We made nearly eleven miles and ran ten very big rapids, meeting with no accident, though one was particularly violent and filled us half full of water in the fierce breakers. The stage of water was exactly right for this stretch; a lower stage would certainly have given us far more trouble. Our stop for the night, Camp 92, was made on a wide sandbank on the left, with some mesquite growing nearby, our first acquaintance with this tree on the river. We now were getting on so well and were so comfortable that we felt quite happy and Jack as usual entertained us with several songs. The next day, Thursday the 22d, Jack and Clem took some photographs in the morning and I hunted fossils for the Major in the limestone shales which had run up under the marble. By nine o'clock we were packed up again in our usual good form, everything in the rubber sacks, hatches firmly battened down, life-preservers ready, and we set forth for another day's battle. There were numerous large rapids and theimpetuous river, turbid and grim, rushed down with a continuity that kept us alert every instant. Though we descended with terrific velocity, nothing gave us any particular trouble before dinner, which we ate in the shade of a mesquite on the right at the mouth of a couple of giant gulches. Here we discovered a large patch of cacti loaded with the red prickly pears or cactus apples, as we called them. They were ripe,—seeming to me to be half way between a fig and a tomato,—and very welcome for dessert, as we had eaten no fresh fruit since a watermelon brought along as far as the first noon camp. All the vegetation was different from that of the upper canyons and of a kind indicating a hotter climate; cacti, yucca, etc. In the afternoon the walls became greater, the river ran swifter, the descent seemed almost without a break, for rapid followed rapid in such quick succession that it was next to impossible to separate them one from another. At times we could barely maintain control of the boats so powerful and uninterrupted was the turbulent sweep of the great narrow flood. At one place as we were being hurled along at a tremendous speed we suddenly perceived immediately ahead of us and in such a position that we could not avoid dashing into it, a fearful commotion of the waters, indicating many large rocks near the surface. The Major stood on the middle deck, his life-preserver in place, and holding by his left hand to the arm of the well secured chair to prevent being thrown off by the lurching of the boat, peered into the approaching maelstrom. It looked to him like the end for us and he exclaimed calmly, "By God, boys, we're gone!" With terrific impetus we sped into the seething, boiling turmoil, expecting to feel a crash and to have theDeancrumble beneath us, but instead of that unfortunate result she shot through smoothly without a scratch, the rocks being deeper than appeared by the disturbance on the surface. We had no time to think over this agreeable delivery, for on came the rapids or rather other rough portions of the unending declivity requiring instant and continuous attention, the Major rapidly giving the orders, Left, right, hard on the right, steady, hard on the left,hard on the left,h-a-r-d on the left, pull away strong, etc., Jones aiding our oars by his long steering sweep. Rowing forprogress was unnecessary; the oars were required only for steering or for pulling as fast as we could to avoid some bad place.
At the same time the walls constantly gained height as the torrent cut down its bed till both together, with the rapidity of our movement, fairly made one dizzy. In turning a bend we saw back through a gulch the summit of the Kaibab's huge cliffs, the total height above our heads being over five thousand feet; a sublime vista. The immediate walls of Marble Canyon were here about 3500 feet, not all vertical but rising in buttresses, terraces, and perpendicular faces, while immediately at the river they were now generally flanked by talus or broken ledges giving ample footing, as seen in the illustration opposite page 219. Words are not adequate to describe this particular day in Marble Canyon; it must be experienced to be appreciated and I will not strive further to convey my impressions. As the sun sank to the western edge of the outer world we were rushing down a long straight stretch of canyon, and the colossal precipices looming on all sides, as well as dead ahead across our pathway, positively appeared about to overwhelm the entire river by their ponderous magnificence, burnished at their summits by the dying sun. On, down the headlong flood our faithful boats carried us to the gloom that seemed to be the termination of all except subterranean progress, but at the very bottom of this course there was a bend to the west, and we found ourselves at the mouth of a deep side canyon coming in from the east, with a small stream flowing into the big river. This was the mouth of the Little Colorado and the end at last of Marble Canyon, one of the straightest, deepest, narrowest, and most majestic chasms of the whole long series. It also had more wall rising vertically from the water's edge than any other canyon we had encountered.
Our distance for the day was eighteen miles with eighteen rapids, one nearly three miles long and all following each other so closely they were well-nigh continuous. We ran seventeen and made one let-down. It was a glorious day and a fitting preparation for our entrance into the next stupendous canyon which the Major styled the "Sockdologer of the World,"the now famous Grand Canyon.[32]Our altitude was 2690 feet, giving a descent in the sixty-five and one-half miles of Marble Canyon of 480 feet, leaving 1850 feet still to be overcome before we could reach the mouth of the Grand Wash and the end of the Grand Canyon. I counted sixty-three rapids in Marble Canyon, Prof. sixty-nine. We made four portages and let down by line six times.
photo, canyon
Canyon of the Little Colorado.
Photograph byC. Barthelmess.
Our Camp 93 was on the left bank of the Little Colorado, and there we remained for Friday, August 23d, to reconnoitre the neighbourhood, and to give Prof. an opportunity to get the latitude and longitude. The Little Colorado was a red stream about sixty feet wide and four or five deep, salty and impossible to drink. The Great Colorado was also muddy and not altogether palatable, for one's hand dipped in and allowed to dry became encrusted with sediment; but the water otherwise was pure. The river had been rapidly rising for several days and was still coming up so that we were likely to have in the Grand Canyon more water than we required. I climbed up the wall on the north side of the Little Colorado thinking I might be able to reach the summit, but when about half-way up I met vast and vertical heights that were impossible and returned to camp. The next morning, Saturday, August 24th, we packed up and entered the Grand Canyon proper on an easy river, making about five miles in half an hour and putting behind six rapids all small, camping at the head of one that was more threatening. Here a little creek came in from the right, or west, near camp. The canyon was wider than above, and we could see the summits around that were six thousand feet above the river, but some miles back. In the morning I made a geological sketch, and in the afternoon I climbed a high peak and put in some of the topography. The next morning we crossed the river to examine a large igneous butte where we found a small vein of copper ore, and after dinner Prof. and I climbed a couple of peaks and did sometriangulating. Monday the 26th found us still at Camp 94 to further investigate the surroundings, and the Major, Prof., Jones, and I climbed up on the north about 2600 feet in order to get a better idea of the several valleys which here seemed to compose the bottom of the great chasm, and did not reach camp till after dark. Everything now developed on a still larger and grander scale; we saw before us an enormous gorge, very wide at the top, which could engulf an ordinary mountain range and lose it within its vast depths and ramifications. Multitudinous lofty mesas, buttes, and pinnacles began to appear, each a mighty mountain in itself, but more or less overwhelmed by the greater grandeur of the Cyclopean environment.
Tuesday, August 27th, after Prof. had put a new tube in the second barometer which had somehow been broken, we pushed off once more to see what the day would develop. The rapid just below camp we ran through easily and then made swift progress for seven miles, running nine more rapids, two rather bad ones. TheCañonitagrounded once on a shoal but got off without damage. Where we stopped for dinner we caught sight of two mountain sheep drinking, and Andy and I got our guns out of the cabins as quickly as possible and started after them, but they flew away like birds of the air. Near this point there was a small abandoned hut of mesquite logs. We went into camp farther down on the left for investigations, the Major and I going up the river and finding a small salty creek which we followed for a time on an old trail, the Major studying the geology and collecting specimens of the rocks, which we carried back to camp, arriving after dark. The geology and topography here were complicated and particularly interesting, and we ought to have been able to spend more days, but the food question, as well as time, was a determining factor in our movements, and with only two boats our rations would carry us with necessary stops only to the mouth of the Kanab Canyon where our pack-train would meet us on September 4th. There was no other place above Diamond Creek known at that time, except perhaps the spot near Mount Trumbull, where supplies could be brought in. On Wednesday we ran two or three miles and stopped for ourphotographers to get some views opposite a rust-coloured sandstone. We also had dinner at this place and then continued the descent. After running four rapids successfully, making a let-down at another, and a portage over the upper end of a sixth we were ready, having made in all six miles, to go into camp part way down the last, one of the heaviest falls we had so far encountered. It was perhaps half a mile long, with a declivity of at least forty feet, studded by numerous enormous boulders. A heavy rain began during our work of getting below, and our clothes being already wet the air became very chilly. We had to carry the cargoes only a short distance, with no climbing, and there was ample room so the portage was not difficult in that respect. But though we could manœuvre the empty boats down along the shore amidst the big rocks, they were exceedingly heavy for our small band, and in sliding them down between the huge masses, with the water pouring around and often into them, we sometimes had as much as we could do to manage them, each man being obliged to strain his muscle to the limit. Jack from this cause hurt his back so badly that he could not lift at all, and overcome by the sudden weakness and pain he came near sinking into the swift river at the stern of theDeanwhere he happened at the moment to be working. I heard his cry and clambered over to seize him as quickly as I could, helping him to shore, where we did all that was possible for his comfort. As we were going no farther that day he was able to rest, and in the morning felt much better, though his back was still weak. Andy took his place in our boat to run the lower end of the rapid, which was easily done. We landed below on the same side, enabling Andy to go back to help bring down theCañonita, while Jack walked along the rocks to where we were. Here we remained for a couple of hours while I climbed up for the Major and measured the "Red Beds," and Jack rested again, improving very fast. When we were ready to go on his trouble had almost disappeared.
photo, canyon
The Grand Canyon.
From just below the Little Colorado.Photograph byJ. K. Hillers, 1872.
A dark granite formation had run up at the foot of the last fall and it rose rapidly higher, hemming the water in with steep, forbidding cliffs close together. The river became much narrower and swirled with an oily-looking current around thebuttresses of granite that thrust themselves from one side or the other into it. The declivity was not great and the torrent was otherwise placid. After three miles of this ominous docility, just as the dinner hour was near and the threatening black granite had risen to one thousand feet above the water, we heard a deep, sullen roar ahead and from the boats the whole river seemed to vanish instantly from earth. At once we ran in on the right to a small area of great broken rocks that protruded above the water at the foot of the wall, and stepping out on these we could look down on one of the most fearful places I ever saw or ever hope to see under like circumstances,—a place that might have been the Gate to Hell that Steward had mentioned. We were near the beginning of a tremendous fall. The narrow river dropped suddenly and smoothly away, and then, beaten to foam, plunged and boomed for a third of a mile through a descent of from eighty to one hundred feet, the enormous waves leaping twenty or thirty feet into the air and sending spray twice as high.[33]On each side were the steep, ragged granitic walls, with the tumultuous waters lashing and pounding against them in a way that precluded all idea of portage or let-down. It needed no second glance to tell us that there was only one way of getting below. If the rocks did not stop us we could "cross to Killiloo," and when a driving rain had ceased Andy gathered the few sticks of driftwood available for a fire, by which he prepared some dinner in advance of the experiment. Jack and Clem took three negatives, and when the dinner was disposed of we stowed all loose articles snugly away in the cabins, except a camp-kettle in each standing-room to bail with, and then battening down the hatches with extra care, and making everything shipshape, we pulled theDeanup-stream, leaving theCañonitaand her crew to watch our success or failure and profit by it. The Major had on his life-preserver and so had Jones, but Jack and I put ours behind our seats, where we could catch them up quickly, for they were so large we thought they impeded the handling of the oars. Jack's back had fortunately now recovered, sothat he was able to row almost his usual stroke. We pulled up-stream about a quarter of a mile close to the right-hand wall, in order that we might get well into the middle of the river before making the great plunge, and then we turned our bow out and secured the desired position as speedily as possible, heading down upon the roaring enemy—roaring as if it would surely swallow us at one gulp.
sketch, rapid